Upstate New Yorker Shoots Protected Birds

Mark Wagner, 48, of Jonesville, New York, has been charged with three violations for taking protected wildlife, taking protected birds, and hunting without a license, after he snuck onto a golf course that neighbors his property and shot an egret (considering where this happened it was most likely a Great Egret). He also acknowledged shooting a Great Blue Heron on 4 July.

Why did he shoot the birds? He thought it was the best way to protect his koi pond…

Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.

I’m not quite sure what to think. Is he was just protecting his kios, but I think I left his side when I figured out he shot the bird. It’s nature and the bird can’t help it. There is also the chance that the egret would not really do anything. I don’t think it was worth breaking three violations.